Stony response to jail concrete

Union slams Corrections 'undercutting'

Prisoners' hard labour is costing dozens of law-abiding Kiwis their jobs, according to industry bosses.

Precast concrete is produced so cheaply by inmates at Auckland's Paremoremo Prison that firms have struggled to compete, says Almalgamated Workers Union Northern boss Ray Bianchi.

The jail's "undercutting" of tenders had cost "at least 100" precast workers their jobs in recent years, Bianchi said. And he expected that figure to greatly increase due to the recession.

"They are competing with bona fide employers who have massive overheads to make their businesses successful. Those people (Department of Corrections) have none of those overheads and they're competing in the same market," he said.

The situation is so serious Corrections Minister Judith Collins has organised a meeting next week between Corrections Inmate Employment (CIE) and members of Precast New Zealand to discuss "partnership" opportunities.

Since the prison operation opened in August 2002, Corrections has been plagued by complaints from businesses who claim they can't compete and are having to lay off staff to stay afloat.

The pre-cast operation was set up to "provide employment opportunities for prisoners" and to support construction of four new prisons, but soon started competing on the open market.

The prison sold its products in 2004 before then-minister of Corrections Paul Swain stopped it. Swain's replacement Damian O'Connor re-introduced it to the market in 2006.

Precast New Zealand executive member Paul Kane, who first met the CIE last week, was reluctant to "pre-empt" the outcome of the meetings. But he hoped the "solution" was stopping the prison competing in the marketplace.

"It's finding a way for them to still train and rehabilitate people and not displace jobs, and that's a hard thing to do ... we actually agree with what they're trying to do inside the prison, we just disagree with the end result," he said.

Kane hoped the precast industry could help train and look after the prison's operation which would eliminate their need to "produce commercial amounts of precast every five minutes".

Kane said businesses "can't compete with the prison". But he didn't think the prison operation needed to be "shut down" completely.

Bianchi believes it's the only answer.

"I've said this to Corrections before, in the not-too-distant future if they're not stopped ... the advertisement will read, `If you want to work in the concrete product industry, commit a crime.' That's the way it's getting. That's (closing the precast yard) the only answer to it. They've proven they can't act responsibly."

The Auditor General probed complaints against the operation in March 2007, and the Department of Labour examined it late last year.

Both concluded the prison had a less than one percent share of the precast market, was acting legally and responsibly, and wasn't to blame for competing businesses making staff redundant.

Kane admitted the precast industry as a whole was about "40 percent over capacity".

Collins said she had asked Precast New Zealand and the CIE to work on "partnership options", and that stopping the prison from competing on the open market wasn't an option at this stage.

Profit from the operation helped offset the cost of keeping prisoners locked up between $80,000-$120,000 annually per inmate and to upkeep facilities, a "massive benefit" to taxpayers.

Collins said the Auditor General and the Department of Labour inquiries had proved the precast operation wasn't a threat to other businesses.

"Corrections doesn't want to be setting itself up against businesses. Corrections is very keen wherever possible to be training people and helping people get training so they can get into work when they leave."

But Bianchi who has made "dozens of bloody complaints" said the precast industry was afraid of "rocking the boat" with the new government, and said if any companies said they weren't affected by the prison operation they were "lying".

Employers had momentarily "stopped giving me information" for that very reason, he said. When Sunday News first approached Precast New Zealand they refused to comment.

Corrections refused to say how much money their pre-cast operation cost to set up, maintain or run annually and how much profit it made a year.

They refused to answer the questions requested under the Official Information Act as "releasing the information would be likely to unreasonably prejudice the commercial position".